How much time does it take to reach Mars? What is faster than light? Well, there is nothing faster than light according to science but there is a much powerful thing that can help you to reach whenever you want “‘Vision“. The human brain is the most fascinating thing created by nature. A person with a vision is the ruler and the rest are followers.
A person without any degree cannot achieve big things, a person with unrealistic plans is considered stupid, a person with bizarre ideas is eccentric, if a person is a jack of all then he is Master of none. These all are some cliché we find often getting discussed in society. No one can bring changes with stereotypical thinking. This bubble cannot be destroyed until and unless an extremely crazy person comes into the picture.
Sir Elon Musk is best known for his innovative ideas and execution. He is the person who has the power of making unrealistic things real. The world assumed this man a crazy person initially but now he is considered a legend. If efforts, futuristic vision, risks, and action are added together then the result will be Sir Elon Musk. Sir Elon Musk is eternal because of his never-ending inventions.
His mission is to make the Earth a better place to live as well as Mars. His graph of growth is never-ending and increasing continuously. Elon Musk is the best example of “You cannot defeat someone who never gives up” and as he works on the “Expect the unexpected” principle. His Unstoppable journey makes everyone think that what should one choose? A pre-defined path? Or An unexplored route?
Sir Elon Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, his mother Maye Musk was a model, and his father Errol Musk, an engineer. In 1918, his parents got divorced and he decided to live with his father later he regretted it and their relation became bitter.” A terrible human being… almost every Evil thing you could imagine, he has done it” Musk describes. Elon Musk was obsessed with reading as if he was a bookworm. He was a quiet child and he had a very bad childhood. He would surround himself with books.
He was 10 when computing, technology grabbed his attention and at 12 age, he taught himself computer programming with just a manual. He created a game called blaster and He sold codes to a Tech magazine for $500. He went to the English-speaking Waterkloof house preparatory school later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School and He describes that his years in school were so brutal, bad, and lonely. He was bullied in his school all the time by batch-mates, they would hit him a lot. Once he was bullied and boys started beating him until he lost his consciousness and they threw him down from a staircase and he was hospitalized.
Then he went to Canada and stayed at a youth hostel and worked odd jobs at a farm and lumber mill. He graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in economics and a Bachelor of Arts in physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He was accepted to a Ph.D. program in Material Science at Stanford University but after 2 days he left the University to launch an internet startup because he got rejected at Netscape where he had applied for a job. Now, this is the phase where musk started challenging everything.
His journey begins with Zip2. Elon Musk along with his brother Kimbal Musk founded a web software company zip2 in 1995. He couldn’t afford an apartment so he would sleep in the office that was rented. The company was all about an internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry. The company became successful. He used to work the whole week later due to some issues Compaq acquired zip2 for $307 Million in 1999 and received 7% of his share which was $22 Million.
Without any break, he immediately co-founded X.Com (an e-mail payment and online financial company) in 1999. This company too experienced huge success as over 200,000 customers joined the service within the initial months. Investors replaced Elon Musk as a CEO with Bill Harris. The company was under pressure because of competition with Confinity, so both companies merged to avoid unnecessary competition. After the merge because of some technological issues musk was ousted in 2000. Then Peter Thiel became the CEO who was the founder member of Confinity and renamed the company Paypal in 2001. In 2002 eBay acquired Paypal for $1.5 Billion and musk was the largest shareholder and received 11.7% that is $165 Million.
Now he had two options with this money “To Rest or To Invest”
Rise of SpaceX:
In 2001, a plan to place a growth chamber for plants on Mars by nonprofit Mars Society inspired Musk and he started thinking about Mars. In October, he traveled to Russia to buy Missiles but because of his ideas, he returned empty-handed. He wanted to take life on Mars but he didn’t have any knowledge about rocket science but books helped him a lot here as well. He started reading books about rocket engines; he taught himself Rocket Science and decided to start a company that will manufacture affordable and Reusable Rockets. He invested his own $100 Million in this company and founded Space Exploration Technology Corp. called SpaceX in May 2002.
Musk took a risk and SpaceX launched his first rocket but unfortunately, the engine captured the fire and a blast occurred and the company faced financial loss. The second rocket launched, it entered space but couldn’t reach the orbit again Failed. The third rocket launched, it reached orbit but got off-route, failed again. Even after continuous failures musk was not ready to stop even the world was taunting him. SpaceX again announced the fourth launch within few months. Only that much money was left in which only one launch was possible. He applied his full force and said one more time and after three failed launches SpaceX launched Falcon1 in 2008 successfully and became the first private Rocket to reach Earth’s orbit. This is the power of “one more time”
A deal of $1.5 billion was offered by NASA for further development to transport cargo to the International Space Station. Not only this but SpaceX was the first company that manufactured Reusable Rockets and this was a remarkable feature. SpaceX currently operates three orbital launch sites at Kennedy Space Centre.
The New Face of TESLA:
Whenever Tesla, Inc is being discussed, Elon Musk always comes into the picture. Tesla which was originally Tesla Motors is an American electric vehicle company that was initially financed by Martin Eberhard and Max Tarpenning in 2003. In 2004 mask invested in the company and later took an active role, made numerous changes, and launched series of successful electric cars.
Tesla built an electric sports car, Roadster in 2008. Then Tesla launched Model S in 2012, Model X in 2015, and Model 3 in 2017 which then became the best-selling electric car in 2020, and the delivery count was more than 5,00,000 units. In 2019 Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck was introduced. This is how Elon Musk succeeded in Space, Rocket Industry as well as in Automobile Industry. This wasn’t the end.
Elon Musk Beyond SpaceX and Tesla:
SolarCity is the company that develops and sells solar panels and solar roof tiles which was founded on 4th July 2006 by Lyndon Rive and Peter Rive. Elon Musk suggested this concept and helped financially to start this company. SolarCity became the second largest provider of solar power systems in the USA in 2013. Later in 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity. SolarCity generates electricity with solar energy and Tesla uses it for Electric Cars. So thoughtful!
Consider if someone just installed a tiny sensor in your brain and whatever your brain is operating is being displayed on a computer through software. Sounds fascinating right, Elon Musk is going to do the same and hence he co-founded Neuralink in 2016. He is trying to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence to make communication better.
Consider you are stuck in traffic and you want the way out and you start imagining that why there are no underground tunnels to manage this traffic. If you think like this then Sir Musk already has founded The Boring Company in 2016 that will construct tunnels underground.
Again consider that traffic scenario, you are getting late and stuck in the traffic you want more speedy transportation. Does Elon Musk have any solution for this? Yes, Hyperloop. Hyperloop is kind of a train but running in a vacuum tube or low-pressure tube that will run 1500 km per hour and his team is working on the Concept.
Reconsider yourself in traffic, you have ample time and want the internet to pass your time but you are already running out of your internet so Elon sir? Are you there? Yes, Starlink is here. This concept was proposed by Elon Musk which is about the free Internet all over the world by sending 12000 satellites around the earth’s orbit with high-speed space-based internet broadband coverage. And SpaceX is the operator. Yes, this man is insanely genius.
In December 2005 musk announced the creation of OpenAI which is the research company that will develop artificial intelligence projects that are safe and beneficial for humanity.
His announcements are never-ending. Multitasker, all-rounder these words are very tiny in front of Elon Musk. As 2021 arrived he became The Richest Person in the World and responding to this Musk Tweeted,
“How strange, well, back to work…”
From a silent boy who was bullied all the time to The Richest Person in The World his journey is immensely crazy. This isn’t a success story of Elon Musk but this is a success story of Technology that will change the world.
I am not worthy enough to extract any conclusion out of this, just pure respect for him!
Author: Shweta Lohar is a proud Indian. She keeps on trying new thing s to understand every angle of life. She aims to create awareness about Indian culture and traditions as because of modernization the actual significance of Indian traditions is lagging and to keep Indian culture alive. And…………To be continued…………..
